Potentially contraversial prescribing-only drugs for cough 咳嗽

2025 04 24 Owen Yang

Cough is notoriously difficult to treat, and in many occasions the over-the-counter medication does not offer desired effect. In Taiwan there have been very high prescribing rates of oral Selective beta-2-adrenoreceptor agonists (#R03CC) (mainly procaterol) and Theophylline and its derivatives (#R03DA). There has not been official reports of the use and this indication for these drugs that I can identify, but anecdotally we know that some doctors in Taiwan prescribe them for a short period of time simply for cough. There seems to be a subtle trend that fewer patients have been prescribed with these drugs.